Jersey City Double Murder Suspect Expected To Face Charges After Being Shot By Police
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A double murder suspect is expected to face charges in the deaths of his estranged girlfriend and 4-year-old son after he was shot by police Thursday night in Hackensack.
There's no word on the condition of 26-year-old Jose Ronald Santos-Alvarez. He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center where he was in surgery late Thursday, prosecutors said.
Santos-Alvarez is accused of killing his estranged girlfriend, 27-year-old Monika Potoczniak, and their 4-year-old son, Christopher Potoczniak, inside of their Jersey City apartment last Wednesday.
The week-long manhunt ended around 7:30 p.m. Thursday when investigators were led to a home at 170 Clay Street in Hackensack.
"They did have an arrest warrant for the individual," said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli. "They were advised no one was in the apartment, but as they went further , they realized someone was in the back and it was the suspect."
Police cornered the 26-year-old in the back of the unit. When Santos-Alvarez lunged at officers with a knife, one of the officers drew their weapon and fired, authorities said.
"They did apprehend him, but until that happened, the suspect presented himself with a knife. There were a lot of police officers in a very small kitchen area. One shot was fired to the abdomen area," Molinelli said
Santos-Alvarez allegedly had an eight or nine-inch knife at the time of the shooting, prosecutors said.
He was wounded in the abdomen and his injury was non-life-threatening, prosecutors said. Reports about a second person being injured, or whether that person was an officer, were not immediately confirmed.
Two women were also arrested at the scene after they allegedly misled police to believe they were the only ones in the duplex and no one else was there, prosecutors said.
Potoczniak and her son were found unconscious in their home on Lincoln Street in Jersey City around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 7. They were both taken to the hospital where they were pronounced dead a short time later, authorities said.
The deaths were ruled a homicide after prosecutors said the medical examiner determined that Monika Potoczniak was strangled and her son was suffocated.
